Christmas break is the perfect time to tear up perfectly good (yet cluttered) living spaces and get ready to remodel. Or, so I hear.

And ‘remodel’ is our own cheapass way of doing it, we can’t afford a real rip-down-the-walls type of remodel, so today we are:

Replacing the kitchen faucet, which after a dozen years has begun leaking in ways that faucets shouldn’t

Re-organize our bedroom closet, and part of our bedroom, a process that began weeks ago

Drop off another case of books at Half Price Books and hope we actually leave the store with less books than we brought in. This time.

If any of this sounds like “chores” or “forced labor,” I need to add that Santa Claus came again at our house last night. Twice.

And I still haven’t lost the smile on my face…